Headlines

Tunnel vision that is endangering India’s history - Page No.6 , GS 1

A new legislation that mirrors the old - Page No.7 , GS 2
No inner-party democracy- Page No.7 , GS 2
All States agreed to GST changes on food items: Finance Minister - Page No.11 ,
GS 3
China steps up LAC air drills as talks stall - Page No.11 , GS 2,3
U.K. records its highest-ever temperature - Page No.13 , GS3
Text and Context - The outrage over the new ‘National Emblem’
Questions (Map, Prelims, Mains)

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Pg no. 6 GS 1
Government has tersely announced that a Bill will be introduced in the
monsoon session to modify a law dealing with ancient monuments.

According to media reports, the Bill will “provide more teeth to the
Archaeological Survey of India”.
Section 20 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains
(AMASR) Act of 1958, last amended in 2010, prohibits construction within a
100 metre radius of all Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)-protected
monuments and regulates activities within another 300 metre radius.

The new Bill proposes to revise this section. Henceforth, expert committees
will decide on the extent of the prohibited and regulated areas around each
monument and activities permitted herein.
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI)

• ASI, under the Ministry of Culture, is the premier organization for

the archaeological research and protection of the cultural heritage
of the nation.
• It administers more than 3650 ancient monuments, archaeological
sites and remains of national importance.
• Its activities include carrying out surveys of antiquarian remains,
exploration and excavation of archaeological sites, conservation
and maintenance of protected monuments etc.
• It was founded in 1861 by Alexander Cunningham- the first
Director-General of ASI. Alexander Cunningham is also known as
the “Father of Indian Archaeology”.
Pg no. 7 GS 2
The Union Health Ministry recently published a new draft Bill to replace the
antiquated Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940.

Much of the world has shifted to a more rigorous system of regulation centered
around the compliance of manufacturing units with good manufacturing practices
(GMPs). In theory, a drug manufactured in compliance with GMPs is subject to so
many checks that it is unlikely that it would fail quality tests once shipped to the
market.

The Bill does nothing to change this system. In fact, it does not mention the
phrase GMP even once.

The one issue that has come up in every review of the drug regulatory system
since 1947 has been the uneven enforcement of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act
across India.
India has 37 agencies for the same job: one in each State and Union
Territory along with the Central Drugs Standard Control
Organisation (CDSCO), which is under the control of the Union
Health Ministry.

This is the reason that the Mashelkar Committee in 2003 had

recommended centralising drug licensing with the central regulator.
Pg no. 7 GS 2
Our Westminster system allows voters to be heard once every five years. The
underlying assumption is that, in the interim, their voice is articulated
through their representatives. It is time for India to seriously consider
empowering its elected representatives, to ensure accountability for party
leadership.
Pg no. 11 GS 3
Pg no. 11 GS 2,3
Pg no. 13 GS 3
A heatwave fuelling ferocious wildfires in Europe pushed temperatures
in Britain over 40 degrees Celsius for the first time on Tuesday after
regional heat records tumbled in France.
Four Asiatic lions are part of the national emblem with three lions being
visible to the naked eye and the fourth one always hidden from general
view. They are taken from the Sarnath Lion Capital of the Mauryan emperor
Asoka.

The seven feet tall sculpture made of polished sandstone represented

courage, power and pride. Built in 250 BC to commemorate the first sermon
of Gautama Buddha, where he is said to have shared the Four Noble Truths
of life, it was mounted on a base of a frieze of smaller sculptures, including
a horse (under fire in the new replica for its tail supposedly resembling that
of a dog), a lion, a bull and an elephant moving in a clockwise direction.
The four animals are said to be guardians of the four directions — north, south,
east and west. They are separated by a wheel, representing the Dharmachakra
of Buddhism, on all four sides.

Each chakra or wheel has 24 spokes. The chakra was later adopted as part of
the national flag.

This abacus was mounted on an inverted lotus which is a symbol of Buddhism.

Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang has left a detailed account of Asoka’s lion pillar in
his writings.
As India won independence, the Constituent Assembly decided on the Sarnath pillar as the
national emblem. It was felt that the pillar epitomised the power, courage and confidence of
the free nation.

The emblem depicts a two-dimensional sculpture with the words Satyameva Jayate (truth
alone triumphs) written below it, taken from the Mundaka Upanishad, written in Devanagari
script.

On January 26, 1950, the Lion Capital of Asoka at Sarnath officially became the national
emblem of India. The emblem represents the seal of the Republic of India.

Five students of renowned artist Nandalal Bose created the emblem. Among them were
Jagdish Mittal, Kripal Singh Shekhawat, Gauri Bhanja and Dinanath Bhargava who was a
young man in his 20s then. He was advised by Bose to visit the Kolkata zoo to observe the
lions closely so as to get the exact expression of the majestic animal.
Mains Practice Question:

How air pollution affects monsoon rains in India ? Explain .(150 words)

वायु प्रदूषण भारत में मानसूनी वषाा को कैसे प्रभाववत करता है ? व्याख्या करें । (150 शब्द)

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Introduction:
• The adverse effects of air pollution on human health are well-established.
• Now, scientists agree that pollutants interfere with the differential heating of land
and sea and reduce the country-wide rainfall by at least 10 per cent and also cause
extreme weather events like unusually heavy rainfall.

Body:
• Clouds are made of water droplets or ice crystals that are so small and light they
are able to stay in the air.
• The water or ice that make up clouds travels into the sky within air as water
vapour. Water vapour gets into air mainly by evaporation as some of the liquid
water from the ocean, lakes, and rivers turns into water vapor and travels in the
air.
• When air rises in the atmosphere it gets cooler and is under less pressure. When
air cools, it’s not able to hold all of the water vapor it once was. Air also can’t hold
as much water when air pressure drops. The vapour becomes small water droplets
or ice crystals and a cloud is formed.
• Excess aerosols, suspended solid particles like dust, smoke and industrial effluents,
in the atmosphere change cloud patterns, its shape, size and other properties like
temperature, which in turn result in variability in rainfall over the Indian sub-
continent during the monsoon season.
• “Air pollution does not allow the landmass to warm up to the required levels. Due
to the presence of pollutants, heating of land takes place at a slower rate. For
instance, the required surface temperature is 40°C (degrees celsius), while the
presence of air pollution will result in restricting temperature up to 38°C or
39°C.”
• Atmospheric water forms deposits on naturally occurring particles, like dust, to
form clouds. But if there is pollution in the atmosphere, the water is bound to
deposit on more particles.
• Spread thin, the water forms smaller droplets, which in turn take longer to
coalesce and form raindrops. In fact,rain may not ever happen, because if the
clouds last longer they can end up moving to drier air zones and evaporating.
Mains Practice Question:

What is the SCO and how does the grouping impact India? Is it set up to
counter the West? (150 words)

एससीओ क्या है और यह समूह भारत को कैसे प्रभाववत करता है ? क्या यह पविम का

मुकाबला करने के वलए स्थावपत वकया गया है ? (150 words)

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